Currently, a calling party's (i.e. caller's) offer governs the rating of an outgoing call. In other words, a telecommunication service provider provides the caller with an offer that dictates the terms of the service. Thereafter, when the caller places a call to a receiving party (i.e. receiver), such offer dictates the rating terms associated with the call. Unfortunately, this type of rating results in an inflexible system.
Some prior art system do, however, incorporate, to some degree, information associated with a receiver, when rating a call. For example, some prepaid systems provide a rating based on a brand associated with a receiver's service provider. This is accomplished by providing separate Mobile Station International ISDN Number (MSISDN) ranges for each brand of subscribers and handling one brand of subscribers with a specific rating engine.
To this end, rating alterations (e.g. discounts, etc.) may be afforded based on whether the service provider brand of the caller and receiver are the same. For example, if a caller using service provider brand “X” calls a receiver with using service provider brand “Y,” the caller will pay a higher tariff compared to calling a receiver using service provider brand “X.” Again, this type of rating is still quite limited, in that it is limited to merely the service provider brand of the caller and receiver.
There is thus a need for overcoming these and/or other problems associated with the prior art.